Avatar: The Cycle Reforged
by anonymous1222
Summary: It has been centuries since the Avatar was last spotted, and in that time terrible storms and natural disasters have reshaped the world. As isolation spread, legends of the avatar and benders began to fade. But on a small island, one young man will find he has the power to change the world. Guided by an old woman, his world is about to get much, much bigger.


Earth. Fire. Air. Water. Long ago there was the Avatar, master of the four elements, who for generations brought peace and harmony to our world. Yet great as the Avatar was, as centuries passed and civilizations fell, stories of the Avatar faded into legend and the connection between the two worlds was forgotten. But then, something happened. No one knows why it all started, but endless storms filled the skies and continents split, throwing the world into chaos. But something was about happen; something that, for the first time in almost two centuries, would inspire hope.

=================================1===============================

It was a quiet spring day, far quieter than one would have come to expect from the first week of the stormy season. I knew that even on the clearest of days I should not trust the weather to remain calm for any length of time, but even so I could not pass up the opportunity before me. Twenty years old, with a knife in my belt and my eyes trained on the water some twenty feet below the pier, what did I have to fear? Standing upon the old wooden beam without a sound to be heard but the lapping of waves and the occasional birdsong, I had never felt so alive and so invincible.

I had been calculating the risk all day, and in the end, what did I have to lose? All of the other scavengers would not dare make any dives at that time, early in the season as it was, but we all knew what had been uncovered. It was far too great a bounty to pass up—large enough to get us through the stormy season, and then some, and thus my decision was made. I pulled my shirt, a modest blue garb of linen, over my head and tossed it to my younger sister. The sun beating at my tanned back, I took a deep breath, bent my knees, and sprang into the air.

Flash storms be damned, in that moment where I came into contact with the water, shooting down from the force of the dive, I was at peace. In my life there had been no greater feeling.

Ten feet down, ten to go, give or take, I stopped my descent and held my hands to my face for a few seconds, and when I pulled them away, a bubble of air had formed about my head, giving me greater access to precious oxygen. I did not know why I could do this, nor did I know why I could possibly do any of the other things I had accomplished with water. All I knew was that I could, and that it had to be kept a secret. From everyone. Even Kalie, my sister, could not know.

I took slow, deep breaths, doing my best to preserve the oxygen in my bubble, and fished out a small device from my pocket: a small, white ball, no larger than an apple. Glowbes, we called them, and with a twist it started glowing with a green-yellow light; not bright enough to illuminate the ocean around me, but enough to reveal the glistening treasure I had taken this dive for.

Bits of metal. Coins, mostly, scattered about the ocean floor. Be they remnants of civilizations old or simply the result of careless loss, I didn't care. I gathered all that I could find and shoved them into the sack tied about my waist. They were the perfect materials for what my sister and I needed, and for what our buyers desired.

My oxygen running low, and the coins seemingly picked clean, I swam for the surface, making sure to pop the bubble before my head broke the water. I quickly swam for the ladder and started climbing back up to the old pier, taking care to skip whichever rungs looked to be in too bad of shape to support my weight.

"Hey, Kalen," Kalie called, "Any luck?"

I pulled myself onto the pier and ran my hand through my short blond hair, "Yeah, it looks like the buyers knew what they were talking about," I unhooked the bag from my pants and handed it over to my sister.

Kalie tossed the bag up in her hand and caught it, and smiled at the weight. "Good work," she looked out over the water, "And just in time too," She said in a hushed tone, "A storm's coming."

I looked out on the horizon. This time of year the storms could come in an instant, even on a bright, sunny day such as this. Many a fool had fallen victim to these flash storms, thinking it was safe to dive. I, despite the danger, had been fortunate enough to have escaped this fate so far, though not without a few close calls, "Let's go home, Kalie," I said, noticing the slowly greying sky in the distance that had likely caught my sister's eye, "We have work to do."

We walked past the hundreds of broken and semi-dismantled Satomobiles that had been neatly lined up alongside the cracked, weed-plagued roads. I suppose in other parts of the world, those less plagued by half a year of storms, the vehicles were still in use, but on an island such as this, with the weather being what it was, the once popular Satomobiles had become more trouble than they were worth. Midori Island, as small and beautiful as it could be, certainly had a certain ferociousness to it.

The streets were empty that day, no doubt thanks to fears of the stormy season they were soon to suffer, but despite how expected such things were, I had an uneasy feeling that something just wasn't right, like there was something off. Even when the two of us finally made it home, which was little more than an old cabin at the end of a long dirt road, I still could not shove the uneasiness aside.

"You all right there, Kalen?" Kalie asked as she overturned the bag into a chipped ceramic bowl and smiled, whispering words of excitement to herself as she lit a small fire in the fire pit.

"Yeah, just….it's nothing." I took a seat in a chair across from the fire pit. Sitting there, listening to the sounds of coins clinking and the pattering of rain above made me think back to when our parents were still alive. It had been just over a decade since we last saw them. My sister was only four at the time, myself, nearing ten. We had been on our own for so long…

==============================2==================================

It was just another sunny day at first, weeks before the stormy season began, so everyone was out and about on the streets, visiting the various market stalls as they began their initial preparations for the months to come. Food, tools, medical supplies, everyone was going about it at such a leisurely pace. But why wouldn't they? The stormy season had never come that early, so why rush it?

And there I was, ten years old again, lanky as ever, with my sister's hand in mine as I dragged her behind me, hot on the heels of my parents. I had always been tall for my age, so my sister, tiny as she was, was having a great deal of difficulty in keeping up, and soon began to cry, halting us dead in our tracks, "Now, now, Kalie," our father knelt down to her level with a kind smile plastered on his face, "Let's not cry, okay? We are almost finished here, and when we get home, we can have Mommy's special pie as a treat, okay?" And my sister instantly went from a crying wreck to a well-mannered model citizen. And, truth be told, I myself stood up a little straighter and eased up on the pace.

"Koa," my mother said in a worried tone, and my father looked up at her, "What is it, Ka'an?" but his expression quickly went from one of joy to one of dread as the sky quickly turned black. A hush fell over the market place, and a strange trembling rumbled beneath our feet.

Then everything went black. I remember feeling like there was no up, nor down, and my chest hurt like it had been headbutted by a platypus-bear. It didn't take me long to realize I was under water. I could not see, I could not hear anything but the rushing of the current, and though I could feel myself being propelled through the waters, I could breath. In my arms I held my unconscious sister, clutched so tightly to my chest I feared I was going to break her, but I did not dare ease up on my grasp, lest I lose her in the void. And when I could see once again, and the mysterious bubble that had formed around me, protecting us from harm, disappeared, we were all that remained.

================================3============================

I woke up to the sound of coins being poured into a pot over the fire. It was not the first time I had that dream. We never found our parents' bodies, and our island suffered a great loss that day, changing it from a cooperative society, to one of a much more…..cutthroat nature. But we managed to survive on our own. Young as we were, we made it through that hell.

But I had so many questions: What were these strange powers I had that allowed us to survive in the first place? Why could I use them? Were there others like me?

Ever since that day, I had access to this power. I couldn't really do anything all that impressive: I could give myself some extra oxygen with an air bubble, or shift some water here and there, but that was about it. And what would Kalie say if she found out?

"Not bad," she said, as she stirred a mixture of powder of her own design into the pot of melting metal, "A little short on copper, but the mix should come out good enough for what they have planned."

"Whose currency are they counterfeiting this time?" I asked. I knew little of the world off of this island, but our buyers were some of the few with enough money to afford the resources to ferry themselves to and from Midori Island to perform their business.

She rolled her eyes, "Who cares? Probably just some city on the mainland," Kalie said as she removed the pot from the fire and added in a few coins of various makes. I still do not know how she learned to be so adept at this, but she certainly had a knack for getting her mixtures just right, "They're paying us good money for this, so we shouldn't ask too many questions." She had a point. The last thing we needed was to lose our only source of income for the coming months.

The rain had begun to pour, drowning out all other sounds from outside, and flashes of lightning lit up the sky between claps of thunder. The stormy season had only just begun.

================================4============================

My sister and I stood over the counter, staring at the small pools of metal hardening in the mold. Kalie looked back and forth between a sample coin she had received from our buyers and the fifty blank copies. The coloring was almost exact and the size—about one and a half inches in diameter- even upon close inspection, was perfect. Only my sister could pull this off with such precision. "How much do you think this is worth?" I asked, taking the coin from her hand. It was much larger than any other coin they had been asked to replicate, at least double the size of the next largest by my estimation. "Normally their orders call for a much larger quantity of coins. These must be pretty valuable to justify what they are paying us."

"And what are they paying us again?" Kalie snatched the coin back and dropped it on the table.

"Four silver pieces." Something about this felt off. Two silver pieces would have been enough to get them through the stormy season more comfortably than ever before. At most, the pair had made one silver piece on an order, and never on an order this small. But despite my worry, Kalie merely shrugged and went back to her inspections. The buyers would be here at any moment. Whatever their reasons were for this purchase didn't matter in the end, so long as we got paid, and shady a group as they were, they had yet to stiff us on any payment.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three loud knocks came from the door. Not wanting to keep our buyers waiting, I rushed for the door and opened it, but to my surprise, who stood in wait was not a group of people here to make a purchase, but was instead an old woman, with long gray hair reaching halfway down her back, standing tall, with a kind smile on her face, "Ah excellent," she said as she pushed her way into our home, "Good to see that you are in." She wasn't wet. Despite the pouring rain outside, there wasn't a drop of water on her, "I was beginning to think I would never find you."

"Find me….wait, what?" I closed the door, "Who are you?"

"Oh that is no matter," she said, taking a seat in my chair without asking for permission or giving introduction. The way she moved, it wasn't like any old woman I'd ever seen. Elegant, graceful, and strong, like the effects of time had done little to hamper her youth, despite her ancient looks.

"No matter?" my sister stomped forward and stood over the woman. I swear, she looked as if she were about to rip the woman's head off, but the elderly intruder simply looked up at her with that smile, "Listen here, you old crone," I could see Kalie tracing her fingers over the hilt of the small knife in her belt. I said nothing, but I started edging a little closer, "You don't just come in to someone's home and make yourself comfortable. So why don't you get the hell out before I pull your ancient, saggy ass out of that chair and throw you out myself?"

"Relax, my child. I am just here to observe." Was she insane? Did she not understand a threat when she saw one? Or, perhaps, Kalie simply didn't frighten her. That wasn't often a wise decision. Kalie had a terrible habit of following through with her threats.

"Observe?" I said, putting myself beside my sister, hoping I could stop her if she decided to do anything rash, "Observe what?" But before I could get a response from the woman, a thunderous knock came from the door. Knowing it could only be our clients, I shouted, "Coming," and walked over to let them in. As I turned the doorknob to let them in, a sharp blow from the other side of the door slammed the hardened wood into my head.

================================5============================

I was awakened by the disgruntled voice of a familiar man, "The bitch cut me," he said as I opened my eyes. My vision slowly started to clear, and I saw the speaker, a large man with a scar running down the left side of his face getting his upper arm wrapped in gauze by one of his partners, a smaller man with long black hair and a perpetually somber look. I tried to stand up, still in a daze about what was going on, but found myself bound to a chair.

"You're lucky that's all I cut," Kalie shouted. She too had been bound to a chair, and the old woman, for whom this ordeal had done little to wipe away that smile, was seated on the couch with her hands bound together on her lap.

So much for an easy job; they must have been planning this assault the whole time. But why? "I guess this explains why the pay was so high," I said, my head throbbed with every word, "And here I had convinced myself it was just you guys recognizing the dangerous work we do."

The two men stood up, and I heard footsteps approach from behind, "I am not going to lie, it will be a shame to see such loyal workers taken off our payroll, but a job is a job, and you know I am not one to turn down a little extra coin."

"The bastard took money for our heads," Kalie shouted.

That much I had pieced together, but the question remained: why? "So what, did someone want us out of the game? Did someone find out about your operation, and you decided to sell us out, Arken?"

The man walked in front of me. Not as large as the man who was cut, and by no means physically imposing, at first glance no one took this man for being dangerous. But I knew all too well what Arken was capable of. One didn't become a top player in the counterfeiting business by being a nice guy, "Kalen, Kalen, Kalen, it's like I said, it's just a job. Nothing personal."

I could see my sister struggling against her bonds, but all eyes were on me. If I could just keep the men distracted a bit longer, "Excuse me," the old woman said, and all three men looked her way, forcing my sister to pause her efforts, "could you please loosen these knots?" her voice sounded….frailer than before, "my hands are tingling."

Arken took a moment before continuing to speak, ignoring the woman's plea. "I don't know what sort of….stories you have on this island, but on the mainland we have a legend. Of people that hold unimaginable power over the elements," he bit his lip and looked down, as if calculating how much more he should talk before finishing the deed. I could see my sister once again working against her bonds out of the corner of my eye, "Now, I don't believe in these stories. To me they are nothing but old fairy tales told to put our children to sleep. But it would seem that some people take the old legends more seriously than myself, and they think that one of you has these powers….and they don't like that."

"This is insane. You're going to kill us because some lunatic thinks we have powers?" did this have to do with my gift? Had someone found out?

"Yes. True or not, the money they are paying me to take this person out is far too good to pass up." Dammit Arken. What could I do to get out of this? Kalie was still fighting. Maybe if I just gave her a little more time.

"And what made them think one of us has these powers?"

"Oh come off it, Kalen, we both know good and well which of you has these powers," with a snap of his fingers, his lackeys stood up. "I am truly sorry about this, I do hope you can forgive me." His men walked up to my sister, knives drawn.

"What are you doing?" I shouted. What the hell were they doing, why were they going after her? If they knew with such confidence which of us had these powers, why were they going after her? "It…it's me. Take me," I confessed. I had to keep them away from her.

"You?" Arken smirked. He fished in his pocket and pulled out a metal disk. I quickly recognized it as one of ours, "They say that no one has ever created such perfection. Our benefactor says this work could never be done by a normal human." The large man held his knife to Kalie's throat and awaited Arken's order while the other stood ready, should Kalie pull a fast one.

"My dear boy," the old woman said, "It is such a beautiful rainstorm, don't you think? Is there nothing you can do about this?" I gave her with a confused look. What was she going on about?

Arken rolled his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" he let out a light chuckle, "Has grandma lost a few of her marbles?" I wouldn't doubt it. What did she expect me to do with a rainstorm?

"Oh come now, Kalen. Don't tell me you don't know of what you can do." Everyone was looking at the old woman now, but Arken was the first to break.

"Okay, I'm done with this," he snapped his fingers, and the large man pressed the knife harder against Kalie's neck, but just as he was about to draw the blade across her throat, his arm jerked back. "What are you doing?" Arken shouted, anger clear on his face, "Kill her."

"I can't," the large man groaned, as if fighting some invisible force that was preventing him from moving.

"Water is such a beautiful thing, isn't it?" the woman stood up slowly, all frailty gone from her voice, "It flows through us, within us, around us," she lifted her hands above her head and the ropes fell off her wrists, and suddenly the rain stopped.

"Kill the hag!" Arken ordered the small man, but he two was quickly stopped in his tracks as his body jerked and contorted as if an invisible fighter had put his body into a painful lock. Anger replaced with terror, Arken took a step back, "What are you?"

"Just a story, I suppose," with one fluid motion she dropped her hands and clapped them together, and instantly a torrent of water flooded through every door and window.

==============================6================================

Everything was destroyed. I pushed myself off the floor, somehow mostly unscathed from the attack. The ropes that had bound me to the chair came undone as the broken splinters of wood fell from their hold. The three men who attacked us lay unmoving about the floor. Kalie, in a similar situation to my own, marched up to the old woman who, dry as ever, stood silently with that smile on her face, "What in the hell was that?" she pulled out her knife and trained it upon the woman, "That, my dear, was water bending," she opened her eyes and looked over in my direction, "Now come. I have a story to tell you."

My sister stared at the woman, eyes wide in terror at the carnage she had caused, but I could only look on in wonder. Is this what I could do? Is this the power I had?

I had to see more.


End file.
